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I know I've written 1,000 times about myself and the C Dot Show, and you may be tired of hearing about it, but this past week I think we had our best one yet, and that's 100 percent on our guest Tuffy Rhodes.

I don't remember if it was Nick Hurm or Angel Rodriguez who threw Tuffy's name out there as a possible guest, but as soon as it was mentioned, I could think of no other guest I wanted. I graduated from high school in Japan and have had an interest in Japanese baseball ever since, so Tuffy, with his local connections and Japanese baseball experience was someone I was really interested in having on the show. We had a couple of issues with timing and when Tuffy could do it, but we finally got him out to MOTR Pub on Thursday, and it was everything I could have hoped for.

When we had Mike Cameron, the former Moeller head coach, on an episode, we asked him about the best players he'd coached against in his long tenure in the city, and Tuffy was, I think, the first name out of his mouth.

You can listen here:

Tuffy played at Western Hills and was drafted by the Astros in 1986, at a time when the Astros system was just loaded. It doesn't take much more than looking at a baseball card I got for Angel, a huge Astros fan, with Tuffy, Luis Gonzalez and Jeff Bagwell -- all looking very young. Add to that Curt Schilling, Ken Caminiti, Gerald Young, Craig Biggio, Eric Yelding, Eric Anthony, Mark Portugal -- and a host of others.

Rhodes went on, of course, to hit three homers off of Dwight Gooden on Opening Day in 1994 -- a story he retells on the podcast.

But what was most interesting, to me, was Tuffy talked about how he didn't take baseball as seriously as he should, and was faced with the choice of more time in the minors, going to Japan or becoming a firefighter -- and the first of those wasn't much of an option.

He went on to go to Japan, where he hit 474 home runs, the 10th most in Japanese baseball history and the most by a gaijin, or foreigner. He also hit 55 home runs in 2001, tying Sadaharu Oh's single-season record -- and then getting pitched around for the rest of the season, including against an Oh-managed team. On the podcast, we talk about his disappointment with Oh, who knew a bit about facing racism, as well, since Oh's father was Taiwanese.

Tuffy talks about the differences between baseball in Japan and the United States and the places where the Japanese way is better. We also talk a lot about the 1992 movie Mr. Baseball, which Rhodes said is the first thing they gave him when he went to the Buffaloes.

Anyway, I was really excited to have Tuffy on the podcast, and I think he was wonderful. We could easily do a second episode with him.

• I honestly have no problems with the picks made for the NL All-Star team, I thought the Reds would have three at most and was pretty surprised to see four. I'd take Alfredo Simon, just because of his experience as a reliever and how he'd help in a game with the structure of an All-Star Game. I'm a big believer in taking several relievers and some set-up guys in an All-Star Game, instead of just the best starters. If you're trying to win, you'll get the best performance out of guys used to performing in that role. Starters are different, and don't always do well in an inning at a time.

As I've written here before, if I were making a team, I'd take Billy Hamilton, too, just as a pinch-runner.

But a move that Mike Matheny made that I wish I would have thought of -- Josh Harrison made the team. Harrison is versatile and deserving. He can play just about anywhere -- and has -- and is a great bench player for a game like this. Congrats to the former Princeton Viking and UC Bearcat and current Pittsburgh Pirate.

All four Reds certainly deserved it, but I will say, I don't think anyone in baseball will enjoy their trip to the All-Star Game more than Todd Frazier.

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Triple-A -- Toledo 6, Louisville 4: Brett Marshall gave up three runs on four hits and seven walks in 5.1, continuing to struggle with his control. Marshall has walked 27 in 21.1 innings so far this year. DH Neftali Soto was 2 for 4 with two knocked in and his hitting .340 since being send down. [Box]

Double-A -- Mobile 5, Pensacola 4, 10 innings: LF Jesse Winker was 2 for 4 with two doubles and scored the tying run on a wild pitch and an error in the ninth inning, but the Blue Wahoos gave up a run in the 10th to lose. Right-hander Timothy Adelman was equal -- if not better -- to Diamondbacks top prospect Archie Bradley, striking out five and giving up just a run on five hits and a walk over five innings. 2B Ryan Wright was 3 for 5 with a double and an RBI, as well. [Box]

High-A -- Bakersfield 3, Modesto 2: LF Sebastian Elizalde had two hits and knocked in two for the Blaze, adding a stolen base, as well. [Box]

Low-A -- Dayton 8, Bowling Green 3: C Jose Ortiz and SS Carlton Daal both hit their first homers of the season, while Dan Langfield gave up two runs in four innings and reliever Tony Amezcua pitched three innings. [Box]

Rookie -- Billings 12, Helena 11, 12 innings: SS Alex Blandino, the No. 29 pick in the draft, drove in the go-ahead run in the 12th for the Mustangs, giving the team a lead it would finally keep. The Mustangs led 5-1 after five innings, and then led 7-1 before giving up seven in the seventh to fall behind. They tied it in the top of the eighth, only to lose that lead in the bottom of the frame. Billings then scored three in the top of the ninth, only to surrender that lead. Blandino was 3 for 5 overall with two walks and hit his second homer of the season in the ninth. RF Aristides Aquino was 4 for 5 with two homers and five RBI. [Box]